Various professional and commercial services and products exist today for whitening teeth. For example, a dental professional can whiten teeth by creating a specific mold of an individual's teeth or by using a device for treating teeth. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,060,935 to Riddell; U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,628 to Aardse; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,424 to Silverman. However, these molds and devices are used to completely cover the teeth and must be used in combination with a chemical gel during treatments and often every night while sleeping for several months for the desired effect.
Further versions of these mouth devices have the teeth wearing molds and devices connected to power supplies where voltage and heat can also be used to enhance the whitening effect. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,382,979 to Linguist; U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,575 to Zavitsanos et al.; and U.S. patent application Publication to Zavitsanos et al. In addition to the problems with the molds and devices referenced above, these devices can cause harm to the patient by the effects of exposure to heat and electricity over time.
Another known service has the dental professional apply a similar chemical whitener and laser light waves to cause the some effect in a shorter amount of time, but with substantial costs. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,320 to Yarborough and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,645,428 and 6,416,320 to Cipolla and assigned to Britesmile, Inc. The method behind this is that a chemical is used to whiten teeth but for faster results, a laser light could be used but normally requires extra protection to the gums because of the harmful combination of the harmful ingredients of the paste in combination with the laser light.
In addition to the substantial added expense of using a laser light, only skilled professionals can use such equipment for whitening teeth. In addition, these types of devices require using a laser type light source that must operate in a specific range in order to work. For example, the Cipolla patents '428 and '320 require light sources that must between 350 and 700 nm, and specifically require the need for light sources that must further emit in wavelengths between 400-520 nanometers and 450 to 530 nanometers, respectively, in order to achieve optimum whitening results.
Overall these professional procedures described above can generally cost hundreds to thousands of dollars and require professionals to be administered properly to patients. Additionally, the complete teeth mold and the light treatments can be uncomfortable to the patient. Still furthermore, the patient must make special appointments to have the appointments to have the treatments done which add to the undesirability of these services and products.
Off-the-shelf commercial products are also now available. For example, the easier and more accessible source of teeth whitening products are the over-the-counter teeth whitening products, such as toothpastes with baking powder, gels, and more recently “strips”. Although these products may be more affordable than using professional dental services, these commercial products are usually not quite as effective as professional services and usually take more time to create the desired effects of whitening one's teeth.
Various types of elaborate teeth whitening devices have been proposed that attempt to include a light source. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,391,283 to Jensen et al. and U.S. Patent Application Publications 2009/0148815 to Philp, Jr. et al., 2006/0172252 to Suzuki, and 2008/0063999 to Osborn, and 2007/0111167 to Russell et al.
The Jensen '282 device in FIG. 2 requires the user hold the pistol appearing grip of a hair-dryer type device that powers the light source. An attached dental guard is held in place against the front teeth of the user. Clearly, this device is cumbersome and requires the user continuously support the pistol type grip to be used. Also, the dental arch cannot be used without the pistol grip supported light source.
Philp '815 is another hand supported device that requires the user to support a wand with a light emitting curved end against one's teeth that is similarly cumbersome. Suzuki '252 has light sources inside of a mouthpiece with the light source cable attached to a power pack that is also cumbersome and undesirable for regular use. Russell '167 describes a light based toothbrush that also requires the user physically hold the device while brushing one's teeth.
Osborn '999 describes a tooth whitening lens with bite plate having built in LEDS so that the device only operates with the LED lights. The LEDs cannot be removed from the device
Other types of devices such as a product identified as WhiteLight, that can be seen on http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/whitelight_tooth_whitening_system.html, uses a portable light source with curved arch that abuts against a tray device. The user must position their lips about the curved arch to hold the light source against the tray or otherwise the light source will fall out. Also, the tray does not the lips of the user apart from one another
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.